A former civil servant with the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications, Ms Regina Finn, told the tribunal she saw nothing sinister in the fact that no note was taken of a meeting between representatives of the department and representatives of Esat Digifone in May 1996.
The meeting was held in the run-up to the issuing of the State's second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone.
Ms Finn told Mr John O'Donnell SC, for the department, there was a general practice within the department of taking notes of meetings, but for each meeting it was a judgment call whether taking notes was required.
She said he knew Mr Martin Brennan and Mr Fintan Towey as colleagues in the department, and trusted them as professional colleagues.
Ms Finn was a member of the group charged with issuing the licence, but was not a member of the group at the time it was evaluating the bids for the licence. Mr Brennan was chairman of the group, and Mr Towey a senior member of the group.
Ms Finn told Ms Jacqueline O'Brien, for the tribunal, that she had been asked to check the ownership structure of the Esat Digifone consortium prior to the issuing of the licence. She received information from solicitor Mr Owen O'Connell about the matter.
A letter from Mr O'Connell stated that the IIU shareholding would, in due course, be disposed of, probably to private and institutional investors. She could not recall when she learned that the shares held by Mr Dermot Desmond's company, IIU Ltd, were being held for Mr Desmond.
A note of a meeting she attended in April 1996 recorded that there was pressure on to issue the licence, and that the pressure was coming from the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, and Mr Michael Lowry.
It also noted that Esat Digifone wanted to draw down funds immediately on the strength of the licence, and that department secretary Mr John Loughrey had made a commitment to Mr Denis O'Brien that the issuing of the licence would be expedited.
Ms Finn is now the director general of utilities regulation in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, in charge of telecommunications, electricity and the postal service.
Mr Towey, resuming his evidence, said it was not correct to say that the group assessing the bids for the licence had been presented with "a fait accompli" on October 9th, 1995, in the wake of he and Mr Brennan carrying out an analysis of the bids during a meeting in Copenhagen in late September 1995. The Copenhagen meeting was attended by Mr Brennan, Mr Towey and Danish consultants.
Mr Towey said what was presented to the October 9th meeting was a proposal. He was not aware of anyone perceiving it as a fait accompli.
However, Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, said another member of the group, Mr Ed O'Callaghan, had told the tribunal that what was presented to the group was effectively the result. He said Mr O'Callaghan had said he was told by Mr Brennan that it was the result, and that the Minister knew about the matter.
Mr Towey continues his evidence today.
